Page 28 of Rejected Wolf Mate

I scratched my chin, contemplating the best way to phrase my answer. “I don’t think a guy who would go to the effort of finding and kidnapping an old flame is the rob-a-bank type of criminal. I think that if he’s worried enough about me and the rest of the Silver Wolves to go after you, it’s something bad. Really bad. His group has killed a lot of people, and from what I can tell, they’re only ramping up.”

Something flickered behind her eyes, the faintest trace of a frown creeping over her otherwise emotionless face. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said it looked like unease. Or maybe confusion?

“You think it’s something that serious?” she asked.

“I think it would be silly not to consider it a possibility,” I said.

She chewed the inside of her cheek as she stared at the ground. She didn’t break down in tears or freak out. She simply sat there, processing it all.

“In that case,” she said, “you probably should get him before it’s too late.”

Chapter 11 - Astrid

Something was wrong.

My heart thudded as I paced the clearing where Dana and I were supposed to meet. Dana should have been here a little while ago. She was allergic to lateness, always had been. So the fact that she hadn’t shown up yet sent a dozen different alarm bells screaming in my head. Had she been caught? Had the Silver Wolves gotten further than I’d expected? Or maybe they’d found out what I was really doing here?

The silence dragged on, everything seeming to last an eternity. As I waited, another train of thought, arguably more distressing than the other, wriggled into my head. Rand had said he thought Ansel was planning something big, something dangerous. I knew that he had been planning something, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent me here. Except I had assumed it was just to throw the Silver Wolves off their scent and gather information. What if Rand was right and there was more to it?

I groaned and rubbed my head. I couldn’t do this much longer. I was at the edge of my rope, and things had gotten too complicated. I liked Brixton. I liked the people there. I didn’t want to keep lying to them.

And that didn’t include the fact that I didn’t hate Rand the same way I had earlier. Just the fact that he had been willing to sit down and talk with me when I’d asked him to showed he had changed. I’d expected him to say it wasn’t my problem and use the “I want to keep you safe” excuse again. The same way he had when he walked out on us.

But he hadn’t. He had changed. I could keep that cold fury up when I thought he was the same person who dumped me. This new one, I couldn’t hate.

I groaned, closing my eyes as I came to a decision. I couldn’t do it anymore. Even if Ansel had been telling the truth, I had done my job at this point. I’d tell Dana I was out, then call Thea and tell her to come join me here. I’d figure out what to tell Rand or where to go after that. One thing at a time. And the main thing at the moment was to end this once and for all.

Except that involved Dana actually coming to our meeting. It had been so long now that I actually thought she might have been caught, in which case my new plan was over before it had even begun.

I waited another fifteen minutes, growing more uneasy with every second. I couldn’t stay out here much longer without being noticed. Just as I was about to turn and leave, mentally preparing some excuse to Rand if he had found out what was happening, that scent of lemon filtered over the earthen forest. As did the smell of burning oak.

Ansel.

I spun, eyes wide and mind racing as I tried to figure out what on earth he could be doing here. Something big must have happened. Something bad. That was the only explanation.

I watched as he stepped into the clearing, Dana on his heels. Except he didn’t look angry or worried or frightened. Instead, he looked… smug.

I glanced from him to Dana, trying to read them both as suspicion and uncertainty began bubbling inside me.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We’re moving into the next phase of our plan,” he said.

“Oh.” My shoulders relaxed. “Okay. Does that mean I’m good to come back?”

A plan formed in my mind, one that I would never have considered a week ago, but one that seemed more and more appealing with every minute. I could go get Thea, and we could come back here. I’d figure out what to tell Rand and the other Silver Wolves and go from there. But the idea of moving and starting a new life here in Brixton with Thea grew more vivid in my mind, feeling more like the right choice every time I envisioned it.

But Ansel was shaking his head, that smug smirk growing wider as he regarded me. My stomach plummeted.

“Not exactly,” he said. “But it won’t be much longer. At the moment, though, we’ve got some work for you to do.”

My jaw clenched. “I did my job,” I argued. “I agreed to gather intel and then leave. If you’ve moved on to the next phase or whatever, that means my job is done.”

“Not quite,” Ansel said.

“You have no say in that anymore,” I said. “I quit. I told you this was my last job, and I meant it. If you don’t need me to gather information, which was all I was supposed to do, then I’m leaving.”

“Don’t you at least want to hear the terms?” he purred. “You have to be curious. And I have to admit, the job will be a lot harder if you say no. But I doubt that will be a problem, anyway.”

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